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Title: Cantor's Dilemma by Carl Djerassi ISBN: 0-14-014359-9 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: March, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Finally - an academic novel about science! But the plot...
Comment: It's just not fair. Academic novels - for all their delights - seem never to be set in science departments. From Lodge (Changing Places, Small World) to DeLillo (White Noise) to Russo (Straight Man), the hero or antihero is inevitably a professor of English Literature or some closely allied field within the liberal arts. (Some might point out that Jane Smiley's Moo is an exception; I would counter that it is also a disappointly weak novel.)
Of course, the temptation is always to dramatize (or satirize) that which one knows best, and with English faculty more prone to writing novels than are scientists, the scarcity of novels about physics, chemisty, or biology should come as little surprise. But finally, a scientist - Carl Djarassi - has entered the fray with a fine series of academic novels focused upon the natural science encampment of the Ivory Tower. Indeed, Djarassi's literary skills (while less likely to win him a second Nobel prize than his scientific ones) are of substantial merit.
The first of this series - Cantor's Dilemma - is not an academic satire, a la Lodge; instead, it is often praised as an exploration of the very serious ethical issues that arise when the stakes get high in the world of science. Indeed, the book does delve into this territory, and does so adeptly. And despite the serious subject matter, Cantor's dilemma is a fun read, and the pages fly by. The book's true strength, however, is overlooked in many reviews: Djarassi manages to present a penetrating look at the complex academic and personal relationships between two very driven men at very different stages in their careers. The strongest aspect of Cantor's Dilemma is its exploration of the complex blend of politicking, emotion, ambition, and collaboration, and friendship that together compose the interactions between a young postdoctoral fellow and his internationally-renowned mentor.
So why only three stars? Ultimately, the book disappoints. In his ending, Djarassi has chosen to abandon any pretense of realism, and to do so without any valid purpose. Neither irony nor necessity lie beneath Djarassi's plot direction; I can only conjecture that he allowed his novel to unfold as it does in order to provide some kind of grand and exciting narrative. A sad mistake; the drama here is truly all in the details.
Rating: 2
Summary: Cantor Shmantor
Comment: I was at the talk of a certain Nobel Prize winner once and he said, half jokingly, that all science is motivated by hatred and envy. This certainly doesn't discount that and is fun to read for what it's worth.
I would however like to vent on the two main female characters. They're insultingly the most one-dimensional characters I've read in years. Granted, anyone who reads this book is looking for science anecdotes not general storytelling but I do have my limits
Rating: 4
Summary: That's what happening!
Comment: It reveals the bones of human and tells us the reality
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Title: The Bourbaki Gambit: A Novel by Carl Djerassi ISBN: 0140254854 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Menachem's Seed by Carl Djerassi ISBN: 0140277943 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: No by Carl Djerassi ISBN: 0140296549 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 31 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Oxygen by Carl Djerassi, Roald Hoffmann ISBN: 3527304134 Publisher: Wiley-VCH Pub. Date: 22 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA by James D. Watson ISBN: 074321630X Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 12 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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